Angel
The Guardian Angel is a mysterious and enigmatic presence watching over the player. It speaks with the voice of a human female and projects images of a beautiful woman with black hair and piercing blue eyes, but it is unknown whether this is its actual appearance or merely projected images to appeal to the player. Details The Angel watches over all of the player's actions through the ECHO-net, a satellite network for communication setup by the Dahl Corporation for communication across Pandora. The player receives an ECHO device from a Claptrap after disembarking from the bus at the beginning of the game. It seems like the Angel uses the Claptraps to guide the player through the game, since they open access to areas and the Angel is very interested in seeing them operational. While her exact motivations are unknown, she is keenly interested in the player obtaining all of the pieces to the Vault Key and being there for the Vault's opening, which can only be done every 200 years. We do know that the Angel is not affiliated with Atlas or the Crimson Lance, since she opposed them throughout the game. Speculation From clues and hints dropped throughout the game, it can be concluded the Guardian Angel is not human. Instead, it seems like the Angel is an AI that is either plugged into Dahl's ECHO-net or actually onboard the satellites that manage and transmit the ECHO-net, through which it monitors and communicates with the player. However, this is unlikely as you get a transmission from her before receiving an ECHO. Additionally, the player receives two communications from the Guardian Angel regarding the window for opening the vault by saying that "We will not have another opportunity to open the Vault in this lifetime" and "We will not have another opportunity to open the Vault in your lifetime," referring to the Vault only being able to be opened every 200 years. Since opening the Vault releases The Destroyer, it can be assumed that either the Vault is a prison for the terrible monster or a gateway it is using to try to enter this dimension. Either way, it seems that the Angel's purpose in guiding the player to the Vault is to prevent The Destroyer from entering this world by defeating it. Perhaps the satellite serves as a 'host' for the Guardian Angel, much like The Destroyer which apparently also needs a host to exist on a particular dimension/plane. Possible origins From various clues in the game, It may be concluded that the Guardian Angel could be either an AI created by Tannis either for company in her psychosis, or accidentally created when her computers were fried while she was trying to translate Eridian writings. Another possibility is that the Guardian Angel is a split personality of Tannis, which expressed itself thorough the ECHO network. Other theories postulate that the Guardian Angel is an agent of the Hyperion corporation or is actually an Eridian. Clues that lead to this are as follows: *Tannis "practically invented" the ECHO network which The Guardian Angel relies on. (Contradiction: Yet she could converse to you on Marcus' bus, before you received the Echo Device from the Cl4P-TP.) *Tannis called the ECHO recorder "two timing" suggesting there was another being in her encampment, even though she was the only living human there. *Tannis asks, "Did you get my message?" when you discover her in a cell. She also says, "They were foolish letting me keep my Communicator," meaning that her alter-ego could have sent the message from the cell. *The paper you get from her is written in the form of an argument with an "invisible cellmate". *If the Guardian Angel is an AI made by Tannis, this would explain her knowledge of the Vault. *The Guardian Angel tells you to deliver the key to Tannis to get a reward. *When returning one of the Vault keys to Tannis, the Guardian Angel says in a transmission, "Congratulations! You got another piece of the key without my help! ...Or did you? (Light giggling)," after Tannis helped you find it. Another possible, and similar theory is that the Guardian Angel was not created by Tannis, but was communicating with her just the same as with the player character and also using Tannis' computer. A comment made after defeating Krom and collecting the Vault Key Fragment in his possession suggests that the Guardian Angel had a hand in leading you to the key, despite never talking to you. Another factor that can also be explained by this, is that Tannis was able to send out a message that, despite being impossible to understand, did reach the player characters Echo Communicator, suggesting that Tannis' communicator was still fully functional, and thus, could be used by the Guardian Angel as her eyes, leading to the argument between Tannis and potentially the Angel, that Tannis wrote in her cell about reactivating the EchoNet. The Angel's ability to hear what is spoken by others is questionable at best, but as she can use the communicators as her eyes, it is very possible that the argument on the napkin was Tannis' method of replying to the Angel. It is also possible that the Hyperion corporation, being the closest direct competitor to Atlas, used their extensive spy and espionage network to find out what they, Tannis, and the player was up to, and work to prevent it. The Guardian Angel may be an agent or AI used by Hyperion to prevent the release of the Destroyer, or to somehow further Hyperion's own ends. An alternate theory is that the Eridians were a cybernetic race (which isn't improbable, given the sophistication of their technology and that all their weapons are electricly based and have names written in binary) and the Guardian Angel is, in fact, a surviving member of the Eridian race, tasked with keeping the Destroyer trapped in the Vault. Being a cybernetic being, the Guardian Angel would be able to interface with the Hyperion spy satellite and link into the ECHO network to watch and communicate with the player. Notes After defeating The Destroyer it can be seen in the final cut-scene that the satellite orbiting Pandora has the weapon manufacturer Hyperion printed on it as well as The Guardian Angel's face. In the final cut scene, the following serial number can be seen printed on the side of the satellite: 4N631 - Which is the word "Angel" in '1337 speak'. The logo of the vault, surrounded by what look like wings, is also printed on the satellite. Hyperion, the titan of light, literally means "Watcher from above," reinforcing the notion of the Angel being connected with Hyperion. As Titans were before gods, it is possible that the company is indeed connected to the Eridians, and in extension Guardian Angel. The Guardian Angel states that she "sees" the player through the ECHOnet, which further implies that the intelligence in question resides in the satellite itself. She speaks to you once after the ECHOnet is downed by the Crimson Lance but the silence beyond that isn't ever attributed to her losing the ability to communicate with you. When the network comes back up she says she can see you again. The Guardian Angel also transmits to you BEFORE you receive an ECHO communication device, while (presumably) able to see you (hence why you are "chosen"). ''-Question: Why would the above be true? How could she see/talk to you before you are handed the ECHO from Clap Trap? '' ''-Response'': The above is true because it happens in the game after you choose a class. Before you get off the bus the Guardian Angel tells you "You wont understand why but I want you to do everything he (Claptrap) says. (which is strange because none of the players should be able to see or hear the "Angel" without use of an communicator etc as when Atlas shut down all the Echo communications she claimed she couldn't "see" the player anymore and presumably lost contact. This means that perhaps the "Angel" can affect organic matter, transmit light and/or sound energy very precisely, or perhaps the player already had some sort of device implanted into their body beforehand they were "Chosen" after all.) -Note: The Angel may be able to communicate through the Echo recorders at a distance. At the time of the initial communication The Player(s) are within 30 ft. of one. This could be argued as false however, considering that the angel tells the character in question to not let on that he is being talked to, implying that only he/she could hear her, so without an Echo recorder, she must of made some other kind of connection, psychic etc. ''--Response-to-the-Responses'': If the ECHOs are her eyes, she would be able to see you on the bus if the driver had a bus-mounted ECHO device. This seems plausible, similar to a radio used for communication on a modern bus or truck. I'll have to keep an eye out for it on my next playthrough. This still doesn't explain how she is able to communicate with you personally. The fact that she uses a distinct, moving, visual feed suggests that this is not occurring over the ECHO network. One theory is a combination of both direct and echo based communication. It could be surmised that angel can use the satellite to directly communicate with the player; however, because the satellite is not in geosynchronous orbit angel cannot always see you by those means. This means that the echo system would be a secondary means of communication, the deactivation of which would give angle less detailed info and periodic loss of communication. --''Response-to-General-Theory: ''The Guardian Angel never states that she would be unable to communicate with you without the ECHO network, just that she would be unable to "see" you. This leads me speculate that while she uses the spy satellite (which assumably operates on the ECHO network) to maintain visual contact on you, her ability to communicate is independent of the network (remember that whenever she speaks with you, it is done through a unique interface, not the standard ECHO message dialogue box). This ties into the above theory that the Guardian Angel is an Eridian and has access to abilities beyond human understanding. --Speculation: ''It could be that The Hyperion company could be a remnant of the Eridian civilization. And that they programmed that Satellite to be a watch dog for the vault and when it can be opened guide someone there to destroy the destroyer. This would explain why the Angel can talk to you before getting the ECHO device, and i speculate from that it managed to hack into the ECHO network and used it to monitor you(the player) using it. '' --Speculation addendum: Satellites can use microwaves to transmit energy amongst themselves, using this on humans can cause the brain to swell rapidly. By pulsating a beam of microwave radiation on the brain it can be interpreted as a human voice. Because this is unnatural it would be very suspicious to witness someone visually responding to voices in their head. As for the image of a woman, this could be how the human brain copes with the voice to buffer their sanity. Trivia *The Guardian Angel is portrayed by actress Britanni Deniece Johnson. *The following videos show her transformation to the Guardian Angel, step by step. Category:NPCs